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Strategies Used to Motivate ESL Students, Research Paper Example

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Words: 787

Literature Review Gists

· Author/Title	Bernaus M,Gardner(2008) Clement(2007) Denitsa(2004)
· Research Problem/Statement	What types of strategy does the teacher employ (use) to motivate in order to promote adult ESL students.
· Research Design	Descriptive
· Theories/perspectives (I want to recommend Krashen theory…)	The scaffolding theory which states that second language is acquired without knowing just like acquiring first language
· Data Collection	Use of questionnaires.
· Discussion	The teacher motivation is related to the reasons pertaining the need of the students to study English as their second language
· Implication (of the research study and for your own study) ·	Was able to investigate what types of motivation are more powerful and successful
· Limitations (of the research study and for your own study)	There was communication problems to both counterparts
· Comments	The research study was successful

Research problem

What type of strategy does the teacher employ (use) to motivate in order to promote adult ESL students?

Research design

Motivation is of significance in learning a second language, we all know studying second language is not like studying most other subjects, what makes it difficult is the fact that one has to take on elements of another culture for instance, vocabulary, pronunciations, and language structure. Applying Krashens theory he points out that second language learning is determined by the amount of comprehensive input. According to him attaining language is forecasted upon the concept of receiving messages learners can understand. The objective of this research is to investigate what types of motivation are powerful and successful in adult second language learning (Clement, 198).

Motivational strategies

Most studies stated that what takes place in the classroom can impact student’s attitudes and motivation. Teachers are supposed to promote and exercise motivational strategies which increase the student’s interest, attention and satisfaction. The strongest and most powerful motivational strategies among the controlled variables basing on teachers and students perception include; the ability to use audiovisual resources and new technologies, encouraging group work, the teachers should satisfy the student’s needs and interests. Encouraging student participation in class is also important since it will enable teachers to gauge whether the student understood or have grasped the language. Excellent grades and ensuring the student attain his/her goals. Praises and rewards are also important (Bernus, 2008).

Method

The subjects for this research were English teacher (1) and his eleven (11) students from the Cuny immigration center. The teacher and students were given series of questionnaires designed to identify their reasons for learning English language ,this were included in the questionnaires based on the ESL learning experience of one of the authors and on classroom observation. The research was able to make a distinction between traditional and innovative strategies used in motivating learners and the reasons to learn ESL (Donitsa, 2004).

Data collection

Teacher Questionnaire

The teacher’s questionnaire was presented in English and had two parts. The first listed twenty teaching strategies and he was asked to rate the frequency with which they used each one on a scale varying from one to eight. Fourteen of the items portray to innovative strategies that teachers use in some classes. We realized that innovative strategies are the ones that help students acquire competencies related to the use of the language for communication and they are student dependent more that teacher centered.

Student questionnaires

There were two parts of questionnaire. First part the students were require to rate the extent to which their teachers used each of the same twenty strategies that had been rated by their teacher that will help them state the reasons for learning English language. Without altering eight point-scale. Results for innovative and traditional strategies were obtained in the exact manner as for the teacher.

Discussion

The teacher motivation is related to the reasons pertaining the need of students to study English as their second language. In any educational system that encourages students to learn ESL it should result in improved levels of education of the students.

References

Bernaus, M. and Gardner, R.C. (2008). Teacher motivation strategies, student perceptions, student motivation, and English achievement. The Modern Language Journal, 92: 387– 401.

Bernaus, M., Moore, E. & Cordeiro, A. (2007). Affective factors influencing plurilingual students’ acquisition of Catalan in a Catalan-Spanish bilingual context. The Modern Language Journal, 91: 235-246.

Clément, R. (1980). “Ethnicity, contact and communicative competence in a second language”. In H. Giles, W. P. Robinson & P. M. Smith (Eds.) Language: Social psychological perspectives: Selected papers from the First International Conference on Social Psychology and Language held at the University of Bristol, England, July 1979. Oxford: Pergamum

Donitsa-Schmidt, S., Inbar, O. and Shohamy, E. (2004). The Effects of Teaching Spoken Arabic on Students’ Attitudes and Motivation in Israel. The Modern Language Journal, 88: 217- 228.

Dörnyei, Z. & Csizér, K. (1998). “Ten commandments for motivating language learners: Results of an empirical study”. Language Teaching Research, 2: 203-229.